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The lights are now the Russian one's and so they dip to the right!
Back to the unpacking again then!
On Wednesday I went up to Yeovil and vsiited Ashley's of Yeovil. They are the brains behind the GP45 kit that transforms a 450cc 'crosser into a GP inspired race bike. They are also Go Faster Bits and purveyors of Rock Oil which is my choice of oil to take with me on the journey. The oil I shall be using is the Synthesis 4 Racing 15w-50 FULLY synthetic. I've emphasised the 'fully' as I discovered over the past few weeks that most synthetic oils are actually based on mineral oil and are therefore subject to 'shearing'! This is not good on roller bearing big ends so a fully synthetic oil was sought and the Polyolefin, Ester based Synthesis 4 Racing came to the top of the pile as being the best oil for me. Martin and Emma at Ashleys gave me a very advantageous price for the 4 x 4ltrs and I'm more than happy to recommend not only the oil but also Ashleys to anyone needing their services and products.
The technical guy at Rock Oil, Martyn, suggested that I use this oil and extend the service schedules so I won't have to take so much oil with me. Rock Oil have also offered to examine the used oil that I will bring samples back of! Result.
From Yeovil I went up to F2 Motorcycles and got a replacement brake light switch for the footbrake. It had packed up and nothing I did made it work. David Angel was also kind enough to give me another Russian headlight unit so that I have 2 LHD units instead of the 2 RHD units for this country.
From F2 I went to stay with my cousin, Nick, in Bicester for a couple of nights.
Then the fight began...
On Thursday my Passport was returned to me from Real Russia who had allowed me to miss out on all the trauma of trying to worm my way through the bureaucratic nightmare of getting a Russian Business Visa. Nick and I visited Real Russia at 9am and my passport was returned with a beautiful Russian Visa in it.
Then we decided the quickest and easiest way of getting to the Mongolian Embassy was by taxi. The driver was great and we arrived at the Embassy before they opened at 10am. Be warned though...the taxi fare worked out at about £5 per mile in London!
The young lady at the Visa section - down the outside stairs to the cellar - explained that the 'system' was down and I couldn't get the visa until Friday morning. This was OK as even if the visa had been returned to me at 12:10pm I would still have had to go into London again as the Kazakh Embassy shuts at noon!
Nick and I walked to the Kazakh Embassy to see where it was and we were horrified at the queue outside, it seemed about 200yds long!
We then returned home via the Alex George motorcycle shop near Dorchester on Thames where I bought a pair of Tech7 overtrousers and a Tech7 clock for the bike (the trousers are great but the clock is crap!). we also called in to Go Outdoors in Oxford to see if there was any camping kit I may find useful. It was there that I decided on taking lots of pasta rather than expensive dried meals. There's more calories per ounce of cargo weight in pasta.
Friday morning and it was back to the Mongolian Embassy where I became the very proud owner of a 'double entry, one month visa. I had a great chat with the young lady as she was not as busy and it would appear that my pronunciation of the two phrases I know in Mongol, is good!
A brisk walk to the Kazakh Embassy and a long wait in a hot queue. I managed to squeeze through the door at 11.45 and at 11.50 all my hopes of visiting Kazakhstan were in ruins!
The problem...You have to have an address where you are staying and if it's a hotel you also need a booking reference! As I would be returning from Mongolia and didn't know when, I could put the name of a hotel down but no reference as I could not say when I would be there. I'm very upset at this because their website doesn't make it very clear about this very important point and now my dreams of visiting Astana lay in ruins.
Today I wrote a letter to the Prime Minister of Kazakhstan - Mr Karim Massimov - and copied the e-mail to the Consular section of the Kazakh Embassy here in the UK.
What I cannot understand is why they do not want visitors to come to their country and spend money? Perhaps someone could enlighten me?
I appreciate that our Government probably has a draconian approach to Kazakhs wishing to come here but that is not my fault. I wanted to meet the peoples of Kazakhstan and learn all about them..
I have finalised my route as to which Countries I shall be visiting on the way out to Mongolia...
France, Germany (Black Forest), Austria, Hungary, Romania, Moldova, Russia, Mongolia.
First the bike...Welbro Engineering made me some brackets for the MiniMoto shock assembly and welded them on. I painted them last night and fitted the shock assy this morning. The reason for the s/absorber is to damp the sidecar body 'doughnut' suspension and to limit it's travel so it doesn't destroy the doughnuts!
I also drilled a couple of holes and mounted the jack to the footplate of the sidecar. I used long bolts so that the jack can only be removed with a deep socket...I must remember to take my deep socket set.
The Clarke's ATC400 Ally box has been bolted to the side rail of the sidecar and this will house all my tools/oil/service items/spares. I'm getting a green canvas cover made for the box to keep it waterproof
The winch control switch has been fitted to the left-hand handlebar and I can now control the winch and the bike in tandem.
The 3rd switch on the black box now controls the rear fog guard light.
The battery box unbolts from inside the rear box and slide down and back until the nylocs arrest it's descent.
The RAM Mount GPS Holder has had draught excluder put in it to take up the free play and stop my GPS62S rattling!
It all looks the same from this side!
I've got....
an MSR XGK multi-fuel stove with fuel bottle and wind shield
a Katadyn Vario Water Purifier
a Snugpak Elite 3 Sleeping Bag
a Vango Omega 350 tent
That's my mate George in the background. I had to borrow his lawn as ours is a bit cramped!
George getting all excited about my new tent
The advantage of this tent is that it can be taken down with the sleeping compartment still in it!
This was the first shakedown test of the bike in a nearly finished state.
I wanted to do 600+ miles to test the electrics and the fuel system as I had calculated that I would be able to cover 640 miles on the fuel I could carry.
After making the plate for the winch mounting and then doing all the electrics I finally finished off on Wednesday morning and left Ivybridge at about 11am. The journey was to Derby to see my friends, John and Irena, and stay the night. It was made arduous by the closure of a road I wanted to take forcing me on a 20 mile detour and then the roadworks in Moreton-in-Marsh where they were planing the road ready to resurface it. I lost nearly 40 minutes there!
I did a re-fuel (pumping the petrol from the auxilliary tank to the bike's tank) at Stanton St Quentin and didn't need to refuel again until the following morning.
I left Derby at approx 07.45 and arrived at the Peterborough HQ of Bauer Media at 09.34 after a very pleasant ride via Melton Mowbray.
Bauer Media are the publishers of Motor Cycle News, Bike Magazine, Ride, Angling Times (or some such angling mag) and a host of others. I mentioned at reception that I had an unusual bike that could do 600+ miles to a tankful and also that I was going to Mongolia. Within a few minutes I was met by a reporter, Dan Aspel, and a photographer (who's name I've forgotten, sorry) and they wanted to see the bike. When they spied it they were completely bowled over and quickly arranged a photo and video shoot which was later put onto the MCN website.
After the meeting I rode to my Cousin's place in Bicester and the following day I went to see his brother (also my cousin) at his garage in New Yatt. Then it was down to Larkhill to see a mate who's just bought a Triumph Bonneville America and then back home via another friend at Blackdown Conversions
Arriving home at 18.33 I made a note of all the things that need attention...
- The Garmin GPS62S rattles in the RAM Mount holder - sorted with some sticky draught excluder
- The sidecar box lids rattle - I've ordered some reinforced edge trimming to cushion the lids.
- The seat is comfy under your 'derriere' but hurts after a while under your thighs - I'm making a new seat pan.
- The sidecar body bounces too much - I've ordered a Mini-Moto shock assembly to see if I can adapt it to damp out the bounce.
- There is a strong smell of petrol when feeding more power on going up hill - I'm going to check float levels and needle settings.
- The speedo UNDER reads. At 55mph the SatNav said 60mph! This is also born out by the speedo telling me I'd done 572 miles when the SatNav says 604 miles. I'm not sure if anything can be done about that!!! I've sent an e-mail to F2 Motorcycles.
The Champion 'Mighty Atom' winch. The mounting allows me to unbolt the winch and invert it to pull the bike backwards. it will be controlled by a switch under the horn button.
The Black Box. This has switches for the fuel pump, the split charging relay and the two cigarette lighter sockets on the front of the box. There's also an isolator keyed switch for the fuel pump switch.
Quick release which cuts off the fuel,
Micron type filter,
another QR which shuts off (allowing the removal and cleaning of the filter)
Facet fuel pump
Water Trap and filter
another QR cut off
One way valve
8mm to 6mm reducer
6mm 'T'piece into the fuel tank balance pipe.
All of the wiring and fuel line can be easily disconnected to remove the whole sidecar from the bike.
The water trap - this give a visual indication when you are transferring fuel to the bike tank.
The fuel system works. I managed to 604 miles on the fuel I could carry and I still haven't gone onto reserve.